Rating Curve

This level is similar to WELL RESTED in that it is far too long for its own good. Most parts of this level hold up very well, but when you put them all together into one 5:49 long XXL level, let alone one that every player is forced to play because it’s an official Event level, you get one of the most tedious experiences in modern Geometry Dash. Again, every part of this level is incredible, but this really should have been split into 2-3 separate levels similar to Ocular Miracle rather than packed together as any late death in this level is extremely painful.

I cannot speak on the coins in this level as I personally didn’t go for them. I will specifically be talking about the normal route in this review. Based on Viprin’s showcase of this level, the coins all look excellent though, with extended secret way routes that feel like their own levels. This is both a blessing and a curse - the coin routes are impressive technically, but they really interrupt the flow of the Space Invaders song and feel out of place. This is a really minor nitpick though so I won’t take off any points for the coin routes.

0%-4% is a short cube part that introduces the city landscape setting of the level. The level starts with a Gameboy boundary frame which introduces the meta narrative that you’re playing a game within a game. At 1% you have the option to fall into a shop area that lets you customize your cube’s decals including adding a hat, a follower, and a flag that will stick to your icon throughout the level. This is a very cool way to add replayability to your level - if I ever replay this (which is unlikely tbh) I’ll definitely use some of these decals. The shop area can extend indefinitely so if you just want orbs go into this area and scroll for 6 minutes straight for 396 free orbs :)

My percentages for the rest of this review will assume you don’t go for the coins and that you never enter the shop area.

4-9% is where the level really begins - you enter the city landscape for real this time, the gameboy boundary disappears, and you have a quick sequence of cube and spider parts where you break through a window in a skyscraper at one point. I like the use of dash orbs here.

9-13% is the first 3x speed part - you have a quick robot part where your robot runs above a train (similar to Noel Electra) and then a ship part where you can choose to access the portal to the first coin. Not much to say about the gameplay here but the city backgrounds look incredible.

13-17% is the first “2.2 shenanigans” part. You are a mini cube traversing a four level building in the background. In the foreground you have a news reporter who is synced with the song’s lyrics. The reporter obscures the gameplay here which can make this part annoying. In particular there is an annoying pink orb jump at 16% that is the first major chokepoint. This part is cool the first time but it really gets annoying once you’ve died in the second half a few times.

17-22% is the buildup of the predrop and it is excellent. You reach the rooftop of the building from the previous section and traverse other rooftops, ultimately leading you up an orb staircase as you watch a massive UFO rise out of the city in the background. This part looks incredible and is the first truly Mythical part of this level.

22-30% is the first drop of the level and it is pretty cool. You start with some tricky wave parts over the city landscape. The mini wave spam and wave dash orb can be tricky here. Then you have a short ball and cube part that leads to a cool part where you dash through a ring of fire only to get launched onto another rooftop in the opposite direction. This is a great seem-less use of mirror gameplay. I also love the blimp that appears on screen in this part for half a second before you break into the blimp and have a short spider part before finally getting launched to another rooftop where you enter an elevator, creating a break in the drop. This is peak chaotic city landscape gameplay, comparable to Arclia’s levels Next Cab Soon and GD Gangster Rap or AmorAltra’s Boom Slayer.

30-40% is the second half of the first drop. You exit the elevator to enter a fast UFO part. The city landscape in the background here looks incredible and is some of Subwoofer’s best artwork yet. At one point you use some portal orbs to get through a construction site, and if you are careful you can access the portal to the second coin after these portal orbs. At 35% you transition from a UFO to a ship and must carefully dodge the UFO’s laser while avoiding the tricky city’s terrain. The ship has to use some yellow and green orbs here to tightly weave through a construction site corridor which can be tricky. Finally the massive UFO from earlier brings debris out of the ground which you have to dodge. Overall this is one of the best looking parts of the first half of this level, Subwoofer really outdid himself here.

40-44% is the second “Gameboy” part where the camera zooms out and you traverse some tight tower gameplay sections as a mini cube / mini spider. I’ve never been a fan of these parts, and this one is particularly annoying if you’ve died in the second half a few times.

44-48% is a sketchy robot and cube part - you use the robot and cube to quickly traverse some sewers in an alien spaceship. I like the dark sewer feel of this part with the purple ooze everywhere, it really adds to the atmosphere of this level.

48-53% is the last sketchy part of the first half - you have a dual where YOU HAVE TO REMEMBER TO HOLD TWO DASH ORBS. I can’t stress this enough, I forgot to hold these dash orbs several times, and considering we’re nearly 3 minutes in, dying here is painful. This dual is very cool though, in particular I love the ending where the two mini cubes alternate on each step of a small staircase leading up to a pipe entrance. The animations as you enter the pipe show incredible attention to detail, this is one of the best looking parts of the level imo.

53-61% is one of the most memorable parts of the level imo. The gameplay finally slows down as you have a 0.5x speed normal swing copter and have to dodge some debris that a big UFO sucks out of the ground. The background here looks incredible as you can see the UFO abducting all the cubes in the city. I didn’t really follow the lore of this level, but before the UFO appears you can see some aliens dragging some white and purple rocks into a portal which suggests that is the alien fuel source, very cool world building.

61-65% is one of my least favorite parts of the level. The camera zooms out so much you can barely see the cube, and the camera is fixed as you traverse several different rooms. In the background you can see a scarred cube with an eyepatch who warns you of the upcoming bossfight and speaks with the lyrics of the song. The gameplay here is very unforgiving, many little things can kill you here and having to squint to even see your icon makes it way harder. I died here in normal once because I tapped the blue orb too early, held, and jumped over the jump pad :(

65-70% is the buildup for the second drop / bossfight and it lives up to the hype. You have a ship section where you have to dodge some unique obstacles including windmills in the alien ship and some stalagmites/ stalactites that pop up and can get in your way. The part is well indicated so you know where to go, but it still feels sketchy.

70-77% is the first phase of the bossfight. It uses a gimmick game mode similar to Neozenith / Alien Dream Emulator where you use a wave that goes from left to right across the screen. I appreciate that this part is both sightreadable and if you struggle with the gamemode there are cheese strats where you can use the pads in the sides of the screen to rest in between the boss’s attacks. The boss itself looks really impressive, it’s still amazing this is the same game as Stereo Madness.

77-79% is a short cutscene where the eyepatch cube from earlier tells you its time to fight back. This is a really cool break part as it really gives you the sense of being humanity’s last stand resistance against the alien invaders.

79-85% the second phase of the bossfight and (gameplay wise) is my least favorite part of the level - I find it by far the hardest part and considering its 4.5 minutes in, any deaths here are absolutely brutal. I managed to die here about 6 times. The cube and ball parts at the start of this section are easy, but they lead to one of the sketchiest waves ever at 80% and this took up all my deaths here. You have to hold with a mini wave into a yellow portal and release at a pretty precise time that’s not easy to read imo. You need excellent wave control here so practice this part a lot. Even after the wave you still have some tricky robot and ship gameplay. I absolutely love the references to CRUSH and Citadel in the spider part at the end of this section, it really ties the Subwoofer multiverse together full circle.

85-87% is an auto part where the boss from earlier knocks your wave into yet another rooftop. This part is a nice break and it looks epic af

87-91% is the third phase of the bossfight. You have some very tricky mini cube and robot gameplay here given this is over 5 minutes into the level. I managed to die here twice, once because I jumped too far with the robot missing a jump pad and once because my click was voided in the cube part (I swear to God, I felt and heard the tap there but my cube didn’t jump, literally a cosmic bit flip that killed me)

91-94% is the fourth phase of the bossfight. It brings back the sideways wave gameplay from the first phase. Thankfully this part is easy to read, but the wave spam at the end can be tricky so practice this part. I’m not sure if the laser attack pattern is random here, but it should be, no reason not to. I don’t think it’s random, the level always gave me the same pattern in both practice and normal.

94-100% is the finale of the level - an auto cutscene where you see the eyepatch cube use a helicopter to kill the boss once and for all. Finally you see the gameboy frame again, indicating that you have beaten the game in the metanarrative of this level. Finally it rolls to credits showing all of the playtesters and dedications.

This level has been in the making for over 20 months now and it really shows. From a technical perspective, this is one of the most impressive GD levels ever made. That being said, I really didn’t enjoy this level, partially because of my nerve control skill issue causing me to die in the second half a lot, but also because it’s just tedious to play a 6 minute level in general, and because this is an event level you have to beat it twice.

This level totally deserves its Mythical rating imo, but it shouldn’t have been an event level considering it’s too long. I would have honestly preferred if Subwoofer had made 0-53% and 53-100% two separate levels, I think each half is Mythical worthy alone.

This level feels like it’s so close to being the best level ever made, but the XXL event shortcoming really holds it back and makes it more like a Top 50 level of all time. Still a 10/10 in my book, but it could have been even better and that’s a bit disappointing.

Side note: this level makes me want to reinstall Globed, I imagine playing this with other players would be so much fun.

Experiment is everything that “IN FI NI TY by AudieoVisual” tried to be but even better, a true classic of experimental 2.2 gameplay that I believe will be remembered for decades.

The core gimmick of this level’s gameplay is that you play through the same loops of gameplay over and over again, potentially forever, and your job as the player is to figure out how to escape the loop. This is a rare classic level that can take arbitrarily long - you can either speedrun it and break out of each loop as soon as possible or you could spend hours playing the same loop forever. This gimmick has been attempted in a few other rated classic levels, but none do it nearly as well as experiment and for that reason I think the gimmick will forever be associated with experiment by mbed

The first loop does a great job of introducing the concept - the loop repeats very fast telling the player something is not as it seems and there is a very clear opening in the floor after the pink orb below the two green orbs that clues the player as to how to escape this loop. By simply hitting the pink orb and skipping the other orbs it is easy to escape this loop, a gentle introduction to what could be a mean gimmick.

The second loop is a bit trickier but still approachable. You have a sequence of a black orb, than a dash orb, than another black orb followed by some breakable blocks in the floor. The breakable blocks are clearly visible which clues the player that they might need some height to jump onto and break those blocks, continuing the downward escape route from the first route. By skipping the black orb and taking a secret way to gain height, you can jump through the floor breaking the loop.

The third loop is possibly the easiest loop so far - you have a sequence of three spider orbs, but one spider orb is noticeably close to a floor platform which clues the player that if they time that spider orb late they can flip gravity and jump below the floor.

The fourth loop is the most sophisticated so far. You have a pulley system between two platforms - jumping on either platform causes that platform to fall and the other rises. There is a clear exit below the second platform, but it can only be accessed if the first platform is low while the second platform is high. This clues the player that they can do a well timed jump on the first platform that skips the second platform on one cycle to expose the exit on the next cycle, at which point exiting the loop is easy.

The fifth loop is probably the jankiest as it relies on the unorthodox nature of the spider. The exit is again clearly visible at the bottom of the screen, which clues the player they need to flip gravity at the very edge of a ceiling to access the exit. This timing is a bit precise and may be tricky for beginners. That being said, I like that the exit is obvious in this loop and that it teaches the player some niche spider tech.

The sixth loop repeats the gimmick from the second loop with the breakable blocks in the floor. This time it’s a little more involved as you are a robot and need to be normal sized to be able to break the floor (being mini and having enough height isn’t enough). This clues the player they need to skip the mini portal and jump on the breakable blocks to escape this loop.

The seventh loop breaks the pattern of the exit being at the bottom of the screen. This loop uses the new 2.2 green portal and is a great example of why green portals are fundamentally different from blue / yellow gravity portals. By abusing the ball’s gravity change mechanics at the right time you can enter a green gravity portal with the opposite of the intended gravity which allows you to access the exit that is clearly visible in the ceiling. This loop is also worth noting because one of the platforms has a colored pattern - purple, blue, red, green, black.

The eighth loop is the most cluttered loop up to this point. You are now the ship gamemode and must dodge a bunch of orbs and jump pads. By interacting with orbs / pads that follow the color pattern from the seventh loop, it is possible to escape this loop. I think for most people, myself included, this is the worst loop in experiment. First of all, the clue to escape is in the previous loop and will be missed by most players. Second, this is the first loop where the escape route isn't visible. That being said, it is possible to pass this via trial and error, it’s just annoying to do so. I appreciate there are no obstacles here, that makes this a little less frustrating.

The ninth loop is a mini cube part. No escape route is visible, but there’s noticeably no ceiling which clues the player they need to go up. By using a red orb to access a high platform to fall and buffer the top of a dash orb, it’s possible to get the trajectory you need to dash into the air which escapes this loop. I like this loop gives you the feeling of being outdoors which makes it feel like you’re close to escaping.

The tenth loop involves repeatedly jumping over 4 spikes. Some indicators reveal if you tap in the other half of the loop, you will fill a progress bar. This clues the player they need to spam to fill the progress bar before getting to the next set of spikes to escape the loop. I don’t like this loop as the window to start spamming is unclear.

After passing the tenth loop, you finally get to a normal classic GD gameplay part. First you have a short mini cube part and then you have a janky mini ship part where slopes redirect you between different straightfly corridors. I appreciate this part is mostly sightreadable despite being demon difficulty. After passing the ship, you are redirected to the final loop in the level - the cube repeatedly crosses the entire screen in front of an image with meme text that simply says “experiment” - no escape is visible. To escape, the player needs to manually reset the level (WITHOUT EXITING THE LEVEL) from the menu.

After resetting, the player is brought back to the first loop. After a few iterations the background goes dark and the level ends.

As many others have stated, this is the best example of puzzle gameplay in a classic level - all the puzzles are sightreadable meaning you could potentially 2-attempt this level. It’s really impressive how mbed used the 2.2 song feature to make the audio sync with the loops perfectly. Everything about this level came together perfectly to make the perfect easy demon puzzle experience.

This isn’t necessarily a level I’d rewatch often, but it’s such a once in a lifetime experience and a must play for any new GD player that I have to give it a 10/10

Classic, I remember beating this when the song was Not on Newgrounds (NONG) and even without the song this was a masterpiece. There's so much to praise about what FunnyGame did here I don't even know where to start.

0-9% is a fun cube part that syncs very well with the repetitive beat of the song

9-16% is a fun ship part where you need decent ship control to dodge a bunch of pillar and gear obstacles

16-19% is a tiny transition mini cube part

19-22% is one of the most iconic parts of the level imo, a puzzle dual cube part where you need to dodge an irregular pattern of spikes

22-29% is a tricky wave part that goes from normal wave to mini wave and requires decent wave control

29-32% is a tiny transition mini cube part that syncs very well with the song

32-35% is the first drop with a tight ship part

35-36% is a tiny transition ball part

36-44% is the hardest part of the level imo, a UFO part that requires very precise click patterns to pass. This part can be janky so practice it

44-53% is an intimidating wave that concludes the first drop

53-57% is a short cube part with the only orb in the level

57-58% is a stressful ball part where you just buffer every input

58-59% is a short cube transition part

59-61% is another repetitive ball part

61-63% is a short cube transition part where you just hold

63-64% is a short mini UFO part where you need a precise pattern

64-68% is an auto part with a cube and ship section, nothing to say here except the effects are cool

68-73% is a tight wave part that begins with a dual wave and transitions to a single wave. It’s the last slow part of the level

73-82% begins the second drop and is a tricky ship part - it’s mainly the transition into this part that’s hard due to all the blue jump pads being inconsistent at times.

82-91% might be the most iconic part of the level - a climactic final wave part with a boatload of cool effects for 1.9 standards. This is the best possible conclusion to the second drop Funnygame could have made.

91-100% is basically auto - all you have to do is fly through a 2-block gap at the end which is easy

Overall, this is the perfect GD level. Perfect song representation with great gameplay and visuals. 10/10 for sure.